MH-234 Bibio - FiRecommended to Mush by Marcus Eoin of Boards Of Canada, the debut release from central England's Stephen Wilkinson (aka Bibio) is a triumph of saturation, distortion, and musical obscurity. Comprised of seventeen ambient songs built on samples of his own work rather than the work of others, Fi is rich in musical imagery. Using manipulated live instrumentation, field recordings, and a strong portion of effects, Bibio's musical influences - the Incredible String Band, Joao Gilberto, My Bloody Valentine, Tortoise, and the producers of Warp Records - seep into his compositions. Bibio's debut is a revelation in the emotional power of lo-fi ambient compositions and clearly establishes him as a producer who has developed his own unique voice.

The pastoral haze that rises from the seventeen settings on fi recalls Boards of Canada; not only does the title of "Cherry Blossom Road" for example, suggest the group but so too does its blurry ambiance, as does "Wet Flakey Bark" with wavering guitar ripples so muffled they could be mistaken for piano. But the sparkling bluegrass psychedelia that emerges in the lovely companion pieces "Bewley in White" and "Bewley in Grey" firmly establishes Bibio's own sound. Dreamy cascades of guitar shimmer caress bucolic melodies in many songs with "Looking Through the Facets of a Plastic Jewel" an especially lovely instance, with the piece distinguished by chiming filigrees of guitars, so dense and full they mask the angelic blur haunting its background. The album might seem long at seventeen tracks but many (typically blurry ambient interludes) are in the one to two-minute range, so the album feels both substantial and digestible; Englander Stephen Wilkinson further personalizes the Bibio sound (named after a kind of fishing lure used by his father during trips to Wales, incidentally) by incorporating liberal helpings of field elements; crackling noises almost drown out the bright uptempo picking of the guitars in "Puddled in the Morning" for example. A marked Eastern dimension emerges in his music too, as evidenced by the hypnotic, mantra-like folk of "Lakeside" and the closer "Poplar Avenue" where looping elements blurrily coalesce into a trance-like drone. Enhanced by its home-made feel (sleeve info notes that it was recorded in various bedrooms, box rooms, and living rooms in London and Wolverhampton, England), the album is best broached as a whole, such that the intermittent fragments assume greater weight as delicate parts of a larger impressionistic fabric. fi impresses as an unassuming yet inviting essay in pastoral placidity, an alluring distillation of country vistas half-glimpsed through early morning mists. - Textura